The development of mobile communication technologies has enabled the permanent reachability of a user of a mobile terminal. However, if the topic is considered other way around, the user of the mobile terminal may not necessarily be able to take the calls, or any other connection attempts, all the time. There are several reasons why the user may miss call attempts. Namely, a) the mobile terminal can be switched off, b) the mobile terminal can be out of radio network coverage, c) the user of the mobile terminal may be busy (e.g. the user is already having a call), or d) the user of the mobile terminal is not able to answer the call.
In order to keep the user informed of missed call, or connection, attempts the mobile terminal manufacturers have implemented a call register in the device. The call register typically maintains information on missed calls, received calls and dialed numbers, for example. The missed calls section of the call register collects information of call attempts which were not answered by the user of the mobile terminal for one reason or another. Especially, the missed calls section collects information if the call attempt signal has reached the mobile terminal from the network. This is the case, when the user of the mobile terminal is not able to answer the call or if the called party drops the call prior answer, as an example.
In addition to call registers the user of the mobile terminal may get information on the missed call attempts from the telecom operator if the user has activated such a service. The idea behind the service is that a network node collects information on missed calls in the network and when the mobile terminal can again be reached, the information is transmitted to the mobile terminal. The information is delivered by means of a regular short message (SMS). This kind of service fits for use if the mobile terminal is switched off or if the mobile terminal is out of the radio network coverage when the call attempt is done or if the mobile terminal is busy with another call (provided that call waiting function is not activated).
However, the use of regular short messages may be annoying for some users. Let's consider, for example, a sales person receiving huge amount of calls all the time, when the person is driving in a scattered radio network coverage area with his or her car. When the sales person is out of radio coverage the missed calls are collected in the network. And when the sales person enters to an area with radio coverage, he or she receives a regular notification SMS of the missed calls. The person receives is able to receive call until the radio coverage again ends and again the missed calls are collected in the network and information on them are delivered to the person when he again enters to an area with radio coverage. One can directly see the disadvantage of such a solution and understand the dissatisfaction of the user of such a service. Furthermore, the safety aspect, especially when driving a car, is also an issue in the regular SMS based prior art solution, since the sales person would, for sure, read each of the received SMS when driving.
The challenge in improving the solution as described above is that the information on the missed connection attempts shall be delivered to the mobile terminal in such a manner that the mobile terminal is able to detect that the delivered information contains missed connection attempt information. Further, it is a challenge, how to present the missed connection attempt information to the user of the mobile terminal.